Bike trails will receive new signs in Lake, Porter counties
People who use two Northwest Indiana bike and pedestrian trails should see new signs along the trails this summer.
Mitch Barloga, the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission’s transportation planning manager, told the NIRPC executive board on March 21 that the signs along the Erie Lackawanna and Prairie Duneland trails will include mileage markers, street signs and welcome signs for the communities they enter.
Barloga said the sign program is paid mostly with federal money, along with $200,000 divided among the participating communities. “I don’t think we’ve ever had this level of participation in an infrastructure project,” he said.
The Erie Lackawanna Trail runs from Crown Point into Hammond, going through Merrillville, Schererville, Griffith and Highland. The Prairie Duneland Trail runs through Portage into Chesterton.
Barloga said the Oak Savannah Trail, which runs between the Erie Lacka- wanna and Prairie Duneland trails, is not part of the sign program because the Lake County Park Board opted not to participate.
Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. said the Oak Savannah Trail needs better signs to keep people from getting lost in Hobart.
Also at the meeting, NIRPC Executive Director Ty Warner said the agency’s new long-range plan will be unveiled in April, and the region’s residents will have several chances to learn about and comment on it.
The draft NWI 2050 Plan, which updates the 2040 Plan completed in 2011, will be released April 1 on NIRPC’s website, www.nirpc.org.
People will be able to comment online through April, and NIRPC will host four public meetings in April to gather more comments before voting, probably in May, to adopt the plan.
Public meetings , all at 6 p.m., will be April 22 at the Hammond Civic Center; April 23 at Indiana Uni- versity Northwest’s Anderson Library in Gary; April 24 at Ivy Tech in Michigan City; and April 25 at Valparaiso University’s Helge Center in Valparaiso.
The 2050 Plan, Warner said, will be “a vision for the future of Northwest Indiana and how we develop and grow through 2050.”
It will update the process for NIRPC to approve transportation projects, “from trails to transit.”
Tim Zorn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.